The cultural and commercial intercourse between India and
South-east Asia across the ocean, as well as the propagation of the
Buddhist religion and of Indian sciences along the ways of central
Asia towards the Far East, have been prominent for nearly twenty
centuries. Many archaeological remains, records of travellers, and
texts and inscriptions in Indian languages existing in all Eastern
Asia are direct testimonies of this fact. Borrowings of Indian words
in the languages of this part of the world, and Indian features in
the original arts of many countries are also indirect evidence of
the same fact.

In the first part of the last century the view was generally
accepted among scholars that the main current of Indian culture
towards the East had been Buddhistic. It seemed sure Hindu religion,
as deriving from the Vedic or Brahmanical one, was not a missionary
religion and was not exported from India. It was easy in order to
support this opinion to quote from Manu or from the other later
sources in the literature of the Dharmasastras prohibiting sea
voyage for brahmans. But in fact, this opinion was wrong. Since the
second part of the last century a lot of brahmanical remains and
Sanskrit Hindu inscriptions were recorded in South-east Asia and
Indonesia. Even literal Vedic quotations appear in Indo-Chinese and
Indonesian documents. The only problem which remained till recently
was how to reconcile the prohibition of exportation of Vedic lore
beyond the seas with the fact of this very exportation, and by whom
the Vedic, Brahmanical and Hindu religions were brought and
established in South-east Asia.

This last problem is now going to be solved, thanks to Tamil
research and to Sanskrit research in Tamil Nadu, as well as in the
S.E. Asia itself. At first Tamil research had not been considered as
very important in this matter because, in South-east Asia, Sanskrit
inscriptions referring only to Sanskrit literature are much more
numerous than the Tamil ones which also are ordinarily of later
dates. So, it seemed the main influence from India towards the East
was from Northern India. Tamilians themselves called Sanskrit
vadamoli (`Northern Language'). But that does not mean they have not
used it. On the contrary, if we draw a complete enquiry into the
culture of Tamil Nad as it was all along the centuries, we observe
Tamil pulavars not only have produced Tamil masterpieces of poetry
and learning, but also have contributed much in Sanskrit to
Literature and Philosophy. We have just to refer to the names of
such great philosophers of world fame as Sankaracarya or Ramanuja,
or to authors like Dandin who were ubhayakavi.

Moreover we must observe when Tamilians wrote in Sanskrit they
were not always nearly following a Northern tradition. Very often
they simply used Sanskrit as a language of general communication in
order to more widely propagate ideas from their own tradition.
Rămănuja, for example, gave a scholastical Sanskrit garment to the
theology of Nammalvar who inspired him and who before him had sung
in his love for God:

Let us now consider the most ancient of the Sanskrit inscriptions
of Indo-China which was found at Vocanh near the eastern coast of
the Indo-Chinese peninsula in Vietnam. According to palaeographical
evidence it belongs to the second or third century A.D. The shape of
the characters does not clearly indicate if the writing was
introduced from South India or from any other part of India. But the
contents of the inscription are significant. In spite of the fact
the lines are not all well preserved we have the name of the king
who ordered to carve out the text. This name is Sri Mara. At the
beginning of the study of this inscription, it was thought the king
was a Buddhist because he was praising 'compassion', karuna. The
name 'Mara' also seemed to evolve Buddhism. But it would have been
very strange if the king had designated himself as Mara, that is, as
an enemy of Buddhism. We know karuna, corresponding to the Tamil
arul, is Brahmanical or Hindu as well as Buddhistic, and the name
Mara in Sanskrit must now be recognised as merely being a
transliteration of the famous Tamil title of Pandyan kings MaRaN.
Because the letter R. of Tamil MaRaN is lacking in Sanskrit it was
replaced by the other one and so the Tamil word became similar to
the name of the Buddha's antagonist who was surely there out of
consideration.

The use of the Sanskrit language by Tamilians and the
introduction of a famous Tamil royal title under a Sanskrit garment
was quite natural at the time, that is, in the first centuries of
the Saka era. In this period not only the Dravidian languages were
by their very origin different from the Indo-Aryan ones but also
they most probably were already highly differentiated from each
other. Above all, the Indoaryan Prakrits of the North, also in use
in the South with the Jain Ardhamagadhi and with the Buddhistic
Pali, were much different from each other. Only Sanskrit was known
at least by educated peoples everywhere and regularly taught in
special schools as the same throughout India. It was the only means
of general communication as Latin has been during centuries in
Europe and as English is today in the greatest part of the world;
Sanskrit was used for secular and practical purposes, owing to this
character of common language medium. In most of the official
inscriptions it replaced the Prakrits and, at the same time, the
compromise between the old Buddhist Prakrit text and the widespread
usage of the classical Sanskrit gave birth to the so called Buddhist
hybrid Sanskrit which was gradually replaced by classical Sanskrit
itself.

In Tamilnad, both Tamil and Sanskrit were classical. Intercourse
between the Tamil kingdom and the Magadha kingdom are evidenced
since the end of the fourth century B.C. The famous Greek ambassador
to the court of Candragupta heard at Pataliputra the story of
Tadadakai, i.e. Minatci of the Pandyan kingdom, without having ever
visited this country. In the middle of the third century B.C.
Asoka's inscriptions refer to the three Tamil kingdoms. Brahmanical
lore was then well known in the South, at least in Kalinga, since
Asoka has expressed his sorrow for the death of many brahmans during
his war to conquer Kalinga.

In any case, many poems in the
Sangam Literature
show us how wide and deep was the knowledge some Tamil pulavars had
of the Vedic and Sanskrit culture. They often refer to Vedic rites,
rising in these references either Tamil or Sanskrit words, saying
velvi or yagam, kelvi or Suruti, maRai or Veda etc., indifferently.
The sixth poem of
Pura nanuru, by Karikilar, in honour of Pandiyan Palyakacalai
Mutukutumi Peruvaluti, shows us that this king followed Siva's cult
and also patronised, at the same time, Vedic ritual.

According to the tradition, the Vedic ritual is intended for
general welfare of the kingdom, i.e. for Bhakti the Siva's cult
rests upon the Agamas and leads to reach both Bhakti and Mukti, the
Supreme Goal. In Tamilnad, both Vedic and Agamic rituals were
prescribed in Sanskrit books, but the religious feelings, the
utterances of devotion of BHAKTI to God have been sung in Tamil by
devotees like the
Nayanmar
and the Alvar.
Tamil has been the language of the heart, Sanskrit the medium of
technical teaching and official proclamations. Both were mastered by
Tamilians everywhere they went. Abroad, they naturally
used Sanskrit for official and practical purposes and our
epigraphical remains are mainly official. That is why they are
chiefly in Sanskrit. In these conditions, no wonder if we find
explanations of many things in South-east Asia through researches
both in Tamil and in the Sanskrit literature of the Tamilnad.

That is the case for example in Ancient Cambodia or Kambujadesa.
In this country, at the very beginning of the ninth century, in A.D.
802 according to several Sanskrit or old Cambodian inscriptions, the
king Jayavarman 11 ordered for the performances of a ritual for the
establishment of the devaraja on a mountain called Mahendraparvata.
This devaraja is subsequently referred to in other inscriptions as
established in various places in the shape of a linga by different
kings. Dévaraja, 'King of Gods' is a usual designation of Indra, but
in spite of the fact the mountain was called after Mahendra, it was
not possible to accept an identification of this devaraja with
Indra. On another side, the parallel designation of the devaraja in
old Cambodian inscriptions was kamaratan jagat to raja which means
'the Lord of Universe who is king.' So, it was supposed and
generally admitted till recently that raja was applying to the human
Cambodian king and a new proposed translation of devaraja was 'the
king who is God', 'the divine king.' It was taken for granted that
the corresponding linga established in the name of the king was a
material symbol embodying the personal essence of the king or the
essence of the kingship.

But we find in Tamil literature a much easier solution.
Manikkavacakar, in his Tiruvacakam refers several times to Siva
as seating on the Mayentiram mountain, i.e. the Mahendraparvata, as
the king of Gods, these Gods being enumerated as Brahma, Vishnu and
Indra. Also at the same time, Siva is the real king of the country
as well as of the whole universe. So, Jayavarman II has simply
performed a Sivalingasthapanam following a conception which is
revealed to us by Manikkavacakar and not the classical Sanskrit
sources, so far as we know. This does not mean that this
representation of Siva was only Tamil and proper to Manikkavacakar.
Tamilians were not coming alone from India to Cambodia. We have also
clear references in the inscriptions of Indians originating from
other parts of India, and the Saivite religion belongs to all India.
But we know by this example that researches in Tamil literature are
necessary to improve our knowledge of the intercourse between India
and South-east Asia. Tamil too is a repository of universal Indian
culture.

The researches in the technical books in Sanskrit which are
preserved chiefly in Tamilnad, e.g. Sivagamas and Pancaratragamas,
are also fruitful in order to understand many features of the old
remains of Hindu religion in South-east Asia and Indonesia. For
example there are in Cambodia huge temples in the shape of pyramids
representing the Meru, according to an all Indian conception. But
some among them which seemed, according to some inscriptions, or
traditions, as being tombs as well as temples, are just built in the
way prescribed in the Agamas for the Samadhis of Yatis or of men
having obtained Sivadiksa. According to the Agamas as summarised in
the Kriyadipika composed by Sivagrayogi of the Tamil
Kailayaparamparai these samadhis may become temples. In Tamilnad
there are numerous samadhis like that, but they are ordinarily small
and do not become centres of temples because there are many ancient
holy places and temples. In Cambodia, on the contrary, where there
were no holy traditional places for Hindu cults before the coming of
Hindu people, the possibility to bury men having been turned into
Siva himself by Agamic rites and to build temples on their Samadhis
was a good way to consecrate the holy as required for the cult.

This cult was finally abandoned when the countries of South-east
Asia were converted to Theravada Buddhism or to Islam. But Thailand
and Cambodia have continued to appoint groups of brahmans for Royal
and State Ceremonies. It is a well known fact these brahmans have
preserved ritual books in Sanskrit in the Grantha characters which
belong exclusively to Tamilnad. According to the traditions, the
ancestors of most of them came from places like Ramesvaram or
Ramanathapuram. Some of them claimed to come from Kailasa; that
means their ancestors belonged to the Kailasa or Kailayaparampara of
Dharmapuram and TiruvatutuRai. They cannot be considered as brahmans
in the strict sense of the Dharmasastra, but brahman has become
since centuries an ordinary designation of Hindu religionists in
South-east Asia. So Brahmana is very often in Chinese and Arabic
sources a reference to Indian peoples of Hindu religion. In Cambodia
these brahmans are also called baku according to the modern
pronounciation, and pakuva according to the orthography. It is easy
to recognise in this last designation Tamil pakkuvar, fit to term in
the Saivasiddhantic use those who are 'ripe' (Sanskrit, pakva) and
entitled to perform rites involving Vedic and Agamic mantras.

The books of these people are actually full of Vedic and Agamic
quotations. Prof. T. P. Meenakshisundaram has already published a
book in Tamil on the festival called in Thailand
Tiruppavai-Tiruvempavai and brought further information on the
subject in this Conference.

In Bali, Indonesia, the religion of Hindu origin which is still
practised in called Agamatirtha. The word tirtha is also used to
designate holy water received from the temple. Such a use is not
general in India for the word tirtha, but it exists in Tamil. There
are other evidences in South-east Asia and Indonesia of the coming
of Sanskrit words through Tamilians with the specialisations or
changes of meaning they have undergone.

So, the role played by the Tamilians in the relations between
India and South-east Asia, though by no means exclusive, has been
very great even when they have used Sanskrit to present their
culture in these countries .

This role has also been extended till the Far East. Little known
archeological and epigraphical discoveries enable us now to trade
the evidence of this role in China. Marco Polo, the famous Venitian
traveller of the end of the thirteenth century had described in the
narration of his travel a town, Zayton, in South China which was at
the time a very important international market where merchants came
from every part of Asia and where a strong group of Indian merchants
were established. Marco Polo did not indicate the regions of India
they came from.

Fortunately we may now be sure at least many of them were
Tamilians. One surrounding wall was built around the town in the
fifteenth century with stone material taken from ancient buildings.
During the last Sino-Japanese war a part of this wall was demolished
and many old architectural and epigraphical remains were discovered.
A few years ago a Chinese archeologist published many pictures and
notices of these findings. Among them we find a lot of pillars of
temples, divine images and elements of the basis of a very large
temple of South Indian style, slightly modified by Chinese artists
who were employed in the building or sculpturing.

There is an ancient image of Mahavisnu, and more recent
representations of lingas or of scenes like gajendramoksnam or
robbing by Kona of the clothes of the the Gopis, etc. Also two
plates with Tamil inscriptions were discovered. Photographs of these
inscriptions are not complete and no full phrase is readable, but
one inscription mentions Perumal, the other gives a part of a date
(cittirai masam). Thanks to these discoveries which give the hope of
further studies we know the Indian merchants seen by Marco Polo had
established both the Vaishnavite and Saivite cult, and were mostly
Tamilians though it is by no means excluded that peoples of other
parts of India have also been there, along with merchants from
Central Asia, Persia and even Arabia.

These few examples may be enough to give us evidence of the need
for a larger and international investigation to try to cover the
immense field of human activity in which Tamil speakers have
co-operated with nations during so many centuries.

That is why we are happy to be now for the first time at Kuala
Lumpur in a position to hold this International Conference-Seminar
of Tamil Studies and to obtain the precious co-operation of so many
scholars of various horizons.